WHEN work was needed on a new path at a valleys school, head teacher Nick Gannon had the perfect solution.

Instead of thumbing through phone directories to find a building firm, he simply decided to carry out the work himself.

Now, whenever he needs a break from the pupils and his paperwork at Cefn Fforest Primary School, he gets out the cement mixer, fetches his wheelbarrow and shovel and gets digging.

He has also persuaded some pupils to help with some of the educational work, such as measuring and using spirit levels.

"The work needed doing as a matter of urgency and I had done some building work at my previous school in Caerphilly," hard-working Mr Gannon told the Argus.

"It can be difficult to find building firms who will take on smaller jobs like this."

The project, costing around 2,500, is to build access paths connecting the different areas of the three-site school.

Currently, parents and children have to either walk along a main road or climb a grassy bank to cross between the sites.

There are also plans to build a footbridge so that pupils can safely cross the main road between the sites. This would be "the final piece of the jigsaw".

There are other improvements being made at the school.

Mr Gannon said: "The local authority has been hugely supportive. They have given us 10,000 to provide new fencing around the nursery and to build a store for our new bikes and trikes."